Glazed Doughnut Muffins

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The first time I made Glazed Doughnut Muffins he commented “You could sell these,” while we both polished off our third… or fourth. The next time, “These taste like candy.”

A doughnut pan has been on my wishlist for a while, and truly, I’ve decided it can remain right there as long as I have access to these tender, light muffins. I’ve made them with blueberries and apricots so far, and we can’t wait to try other varieties. Yum!

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted (I’m usually lazy and don’t sift things, but I do sift here. No lumps in my glaze!)

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon lemon or orange juice

1 tablespoon warm water (or additional lemon/orange juice)

Combine zest with both sugars. Smoosh it around so the flavor gets in the sugar. Beat in butter and coconut oil until smooth. Whisk in eggs, vanilla, and milk.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet mixture. Stir until well combined. *Mixture will be thinner than a regular muffin recipe.* Fold in fruit.

Scoop batter into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400° for about 18 minutes. Test with a toothpick to make sure they’re done. Allow muffins to cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, or they’ll fall apart when you take them out. (Experience speaks!)

Dip the tops of warm muffins into the glaze. Finish cooling on a wire rack. Best devoured fresh, but muffins will keep in an airtight container for a day or two. I’m sure you could also freeze them, but we’ve not yet had any left to try that out!

Makes about 18 doughnut muffins.

*** When I remember, I try to zest my oranges before I peel them, keeping the zest in the freezer so I always have some handy.

*** I’m guessing regular cooking oil would work fine, but if you’re not baking and cooking with coconut oil yet, you’re missing out on great taste and amazing health benefits! I order mine from Tropical Traditions, Amazon, or Vitacost.

*** I use 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour and 2/3 cup unbleached white flour, and we love the light and tender texture of these doughnut muffins. Use whatever combination of flour suits your fancy!

I made muffins for the first time yesterday, the kids love them. I have 2 questions. One I used whole wheat white flour, does that change the batter mine was thick? Also does coconut oil taste like coconut?

Yes, the white whole wheat will make the batter thicker. When I use it I often use just a bit less (maybe 1 tablespoon per cup). Virgin coconut oil has a slight hint of coconut in it (that I can’t taste in my baked goods) but expellar pressed does not. I use virgin for all my baking, smoothies, granola, etc. (anything with a hint of sweet) and expellar-pressed for other cooking (like frying hashbrowns and zucchini.) Hope that helps!

I love coconut oil but it is such a hassle to measure. I’ve only got it from Tropical Traditions so far but it is a chore to get it out of the taller glass jars, I cracked one jar trying to dig some out. But I guess that is a small price to pay for a high quality/healthy oil. Do you melt the cocounut oil before you add it to the other ingredients?

I get it in the gallon tubs (plastic) now, but yes, the jars are kind of a pain. Since it’s about 77° in our house now, it’s already semi-melted, so I don’t mess with it. It just needs to be pretty soft.

I made these this morning for breakfast and my family loved them! However, I made one BIG mistake. I made these muffins way to small! I’m still not sure why I did that! I have left over glaze so I’m going to make another batch for the freezer to use up the leftover glaze. This was my first experience using coconut oil. I was very thankful that I could not “taste” coconut as I HATE anything with coconut in it. Yes, I even HATE the smell of coconut.

Ha! I thought about making mini-muffin size for fun, but I KNOW we’d just pop ‘em like candy until they’re gone. (Have you read the coconut oil book yet? TONS of health benefits. I’ll let you borrow mine sometime. Wish we could get grandpa on it…)